Malaysian general election, 1978
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The 1978 Malaysian General Election was the fifth of its kind and it was held on July 8, 1978. It was Tun Hussein Onn first election since he became the country's third Prime Minister.
The election was the first for Islamic Party of Malaysia (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; PAS). Previously, PAS was known as Berjasa and an ally of UMNO.
[edit] Results
As expected, Barisan Nasional (BN) comfortably maintained its majority in the Malaysian Parliament and thus, gave the Prime Minister the power to form a government with a free hand. Out of 154 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, BN won 130. That means BN held 84.4% of the seats available in the Parliament. Despite the victory, BN actually lost five seats to the opposition. In the previous election, it managed 159 seats. The lost of the five seats is attributed to PAS' decision to opt out of UMNO; UMNO was and still is one of the major component parties within BN.
Berjasa had previous controlled the state of Kelantan. Its separation out of UMNO cost it the control of Kelantan to its former ally. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has been credited for UMNO's victory in Kelantan.
The opposition garnered 42.8% of total votes. In spite of that, the opposition as one won only 24 seats. Democratic Action Party won the largest slice of the pie among the opposition parties and hence, its leader Lim Kit Siang retained his position as the leader of the opposition that he had obtained four years earlier.
Voters turnout for this election was lower compared to the previous election. It fell to 57.2% from 60.7%.
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